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Marcus Nilson raced toward the Tampa net in overtime, a chance to be a Stanley Cup hero.

With Dave Lowry carrying the puck on his left side, the veteran winger chipped the puck ahead.

Nilson redirected the puck at the open side of the Bolts net, inches too low to clear the shoulder of Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, a touch too high to sneak under the netminder's arm.

"He went down and it just hit his shoulder -- that's the way it is, a couple of inches higher and it's in the net but there's nothing you can do about that," said Nilson, who had tied the game 2-2 late in the second.

"There were chances both ways," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said of the 20:33 of overtime before Lightning sniper Martin St. Louis forced Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

"There were a lot of lines really going and Clarkey (Chris Clark) and (Ville) Nieminen and (Oleg) Saprykin seemed like they had a chance every shift with Nilson (who almost scored in overtime).

"Unfortunately it didn't go in but there were chances both ways and Kipper played great. It's something that we look at and it's tough."

Nilson said defensive mistakes by Calgary, in addition to taking too many penalties, cost the Flames a chance to win the Cup at home.

"I had one on their second goal and they capitalized, got two powerplay goals but we just have to do a better job on the penalty kill," Nilson said. "That's the way it is, they've got a good powerplay. We bounced back twice but I thought we played well in the overtime.

"They've got an aggressive forecheck but we have to find ways to beat it and I thought we played pretty good tonight."

With Game 7 looming tomorrow night in Tampa with a chance to win the Cup, Nilson said the Flames need to forget about the Game 6 nightmare and refocus on doing the job they failed to complete last night.

"It's the same mentality as going into tonight," Nilson said.

"We still have one game to win. It's the same, we have to win a hockey game 60 minutes, we just have to play a good game."

Winger Martin Gelinas, who could have celebrated his second Stanley Cup win last night on his 34th birthday, said the Flames need to recover quickly from last night's crushing loss.

"We're disappointed but when we started our quest at the start of the season, if somebody would have told us we'd go to a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, we would have taken it," Gelinas said.

"At the same time, we're all upset but we have to leave that behind. It's a huge game -- Game 7 -- and we'll be ready.

"You just have to go out there and play hard. There's no tomorrow for both teams and I think everybody's going to give it their best."